Script To Screen: “Amadeus”
The glorious “Requiem” scene from the 1984 movie Amadeus, screenplay by Peter Shaffer based on his original stage play.
The glorious “Requiem” scene from the 1984 movie Amadeus, screenplay by Peter Shaffer based on his original stage play.
Setup: On his deathbed, Wolfgang Mozart conveys what he is hearing of his final composition to his rival Salieri.
Here is the scripted version of the scene:
Here is the movie scene:
This is one of those scenes which flows directly from the page onto the screen, yet beautifully elevated by the performances of the actors. One of my favorite all-time movie scenes.
I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from Amadeus.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story weekly series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.